Even with all the new oil and annual bounties of sugar and honey, North Dakota ranks as one of the "low sticky" states in a new survey by the Pew Research Center.

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In this case, "sticky" refers to a state's ability to hold onto its native sons and daughters.

The research center's social and demographic trends project used Census data to assess whether the 50 states and the District of Columbia are "sticky," and North Dakota fell near the bottom: 47th place.

The project also used demographic trends to determine which states were "high magnet" - tending to attract people from other states - and which were "low magnet."

Again, the news is not so good: North Dakota ranked as a "low magnet" state, in 37th place.

North Dakota was one of nine states to score low in both categories.

Minnesota also registered as a "low magnet" state - two spots behind North Dakota, actually - but is "high sticky" when it comes to retaining people born there. More than two-thirds of the state's adult residents were born in Minnesota, a proportion topped by just seven other states, including Wisconsin.

To be clear about the definitions: A "magnet" state is defined as one in which a high percentage of adults who live there now moved there from other states. A "sticky" state has retained a high share of adults who were born there. The magnet rankings take no account of international immigration.

States classified as both high-magnet and high-sticky include Arizona, Florida, Oregon, Virginia and Washington.

With North Dakota and neighbor South Dakota among the low-magnet, low-sticky bunch: Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, Rhode Island and West Virginia.

The least sticky state is Alaska, according to the research results, as only 28 percent of adults born there still live there.

Texas is barbecue sticky, the nation's stickiest, holding onto more than three-fourths of the adults born there.

Most magnetic is Nevada, with 86 percent of its current adult residents born elsewhere. At the other end of the scale, only 19 percent of New York's current adult residents were born in another state.